Sustainability Technology & The Evolution of Smart Cities

NEWgenerator – Technology for the Global Sanitation Challenge

For about 40 percent of the world’s population, “going to the bathroom” is often done outdoors in unhealthy conditions. Most people don’t think about human waste much past the moment their toilet flushes each time, there exists infrastructure that transports waste to separate locations for processing in plants. This large-scale process costs money that most developing countries don’t have.

Technology

University of Florida researchers have built portable wastewater treatment system called the NEWgenerator. The NEWgenerator is a resource recovery machine that harvests nutrient fertilizers, renewable energy, and clean water from human or food wastes. The machine achieves a high level of waste treatment through the use of state-of-the-art anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) technology. Extensive pathogen destruction is achieved to ensure safe sanitation.

The NEWgenerator is built inside a shipping container, making it compact and easy to transport. There are solar panels on the top of the container that provide all the power, something necessary in areas that don’t have large power grids. There is also a hydroponics system on one of the outside walls where plants can be grown using water generated by the device.

The NEWgenerator takes wastewater and converts it into three things: nutrients, energy and water — hence the “NEW” in NEWgenerator. The water is treated so it is safe to use for irrigation and toilets, while the physical waste filters out as nutrients for plants. Methane gas that can be used for energy is trapped in a large bag on top of the generator.